first of three! now that I have internet again. sort of

Hey friends! I haven't had internet and I still wouldn't bet on this being a consistent thing quite yet, but this is the first of three posts that have been anxiously been waiting to be posted. Enjoy!

Part 1: 14 August 2011

I’ll be going about this entry a little differently than I usually do. The first half is from the night before placement, and the second half is after I find everything out. As I write this on Sunday, I hope to write it Monday evening after placement, but who knows what that night will entail. Since this is technically two posts in one, I apologize in advance for the length.

Anyway, this is one of those weird nights like the night before leaving for college for the first time, the last night at school, and the last night before I left home for this adventure because I’m staring at my mess that still has to be packed (I’m doing better than usual though!) and I know that it all somehow has to fit back into the bags I brought. It doesn’t help that PC/M gave us a ridiculous amount of stuff that we have to pack in with the rest of our crap, especially since that darn tumpen doesn’t fit inside ANYTHING. That will be an especially big problem if I get a fly site and have to somehow bring 4 bags and a tumpen on an airplane.

I really don’t know how I feel about placement tomorrow. On the one hand, I am dying to know where I’m going. I read blog posts from people in other PC countries and they found out their permanent sites really early in training, whereas I’m finding out four days before I swear in and become a real volunteer. Two people already found out that they’re going to Bayan Olgii because that’s a heavy Kazakh majority – part of me really wanted that aimag because I think the Kazakhs are interesting, but not going there means I get to work on my Mongolian some more. That’s another thing I learn tomorrow – how I did on my LPI. I’m pretty sure I did pretty well because I did a role play, but other than that I have no idea. I told the tester that I have no hobbies, had to try to explain that I don’t live in New York City, and she offered to let me do her laundry as well as mine. I’m not entirely sure what that all translates too other than she probably thinks I’m crazy. Not as bad as the other people at my site who asked if she had a secret lover (one of our top three vocabulary words this summer along with marmot and camel), but still. 

So feelings about tomorrow. I think I’m more nervous about my LPI score than my placement. There’s nothing I can do about either at this point, but the LPI score is more a matter of personal pride. I hope they tell us when we get to Darkhan in the morning instead of making us wait until 4pm when we get placed. I don’t think I’ll be upset with any placement because every part of Mongolia has its pros and cons. Every time I think I have a place I want to be sent, I learn more about other regions and I don’t know anymore. I don’t care about being placed in a soum or an aimag center. I’d like to have someone decently close that I can be American with on a semi-regular basis, but at the same time I’m not too big on people in general so I can deal with being the only American. There are some people I’d rather be placed near than others, but that’s only natural because there’s no way I can like 65 other people equally, some I’ve gotten to know better than others. Really I’m just confused and want tomorrow to be over as soon as possible so all this waiting and anxiety can be gone.

Part 2: 17 August 2011

Alrighty friends, Monday was a big, big day for me. We got our LPI scores and I don’t want to talk about that really. I think it was lower than it should have been, but I’ll just have to try harder on the next one.

Most importantly: we got our sites! My training site mates and I were the first ones called out into the giant map of Mongolia to stand approximately where our new sites are. They didn’t tell us which site was going first, but they called out one of our names and there was a distinct “oh crap that’s us” so good times. I will be in Bulgan aimag in a small soum about two hours outside of Erdenet (the second or third largest city in Mongolia). I think I’m excited because my site sounds really good on paper, but I don’t think I can really judge until I actually get there on Friday.

Getting my placement was a little surprising because I had never heard of Bulgan before getting placed there. Funny because it’s the aimag directly west of where I’ve been all summer. But apparently I have trees and a river and fruit so that sounds fantastic. I have one M22 in another soum 30 minutes away, a bunch of people are in Erdenet, and another two are in our aimag center so I’m not completely alone. I’ll be alone in my tiny soum, but alone with other people nearby.

Later edit: I never got around to finishing this entry, sorry. Guess I’ll just have to tell you how everything actually goes down out here in Bulgan now that I’m here.